The prior art is replete with tissue roll dispensers provided with a housing configured and sized to contain two or more rolls of tissue. One of the rolls (hereinafter referred to as the primary roll) is maintained so that it is possible to unroll the tissue therefrom while the other rolls (hereinafter referred to as the secondary rolls) are in reserve and may take the place of the primary roll when it is exhausted. More specifically, when the primary roll is exhausted, a mechanism is manually actuated to release the exhausted roll to allow one of the secondary rolls to take its place and become the primary roll.
A first type of tissue roll dispenser is characterized by the pre insertion of spindles in individual rolls of tissue. These spindles, protruding from each end of the rolls, allow the rolls to be guided by tracks. U.S. Pat. No. 2,605,975 issued to Page et al. on Aug. 5, 1952; U.S. Pat. No. 2,727,930 issued to M.sup.c Cants on Oct. 23, 1956; and U.S. Pat. No. 3,865,295 issued to Okamura on Feb. 11, 1975 are examples of this type of dispenser.
A second type of dispenser is characterized by the absence of such spindle. This second type of dispenser has the advantage that the rolls are more easily inserted in the dispenser since no spindle has to be installed in the rolls. Dispensers of tissue rolls of this second type are however generally more mechanically complex, which increases the manufacturing costs and the maintenance costs and decreases the reliability of the dispenser. U.S. Pat. No. 2,896,871 issued to Woodruff on Jul. 28, 1959; U.S. Pat. No. 3,039,709 issued to Bolger on Jun. 19, 1962; U.S. Pat. No. 4,034,924 issued to Carlisle on Jul. 12, 1977; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,000,393 issued to Madsen on Mar. 19, 1991 are examples of such dispenser.